Avery Mephistopheles Stout

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Boulder, Colorado USA

Bottle, batch 2. Aroma of very earthy, dried pears and apples, some coffee integrated with these light but very vinous, tough fruit scents. Flavor more heavily coffee with more fruits coming on, still the apple and pear at the beginning, but more fig, raisin, some prune later, even some dark cherry/plum if you really search. Much sweeter and less chocolate/coffee dominated than your average imperial stout, but then again this beer can hardly be categorized. Definitely a sipper, but I didn’t find it at all boozy, all the richness and appropriate but not shining hops really do away with that 16%. A great beer, flat out.

Nov. 2008 bottle - Pours solid opaque black with a big off-brown head considering the strength. The aroma is all dark fruits like raisins, plums, and even sweet prunes. The flavor imitates but adds nice roast and finishing flavors of coffee with cream leading into it. This is surprisingly easy to drink considering the 16%.

[Sampled with the trio: Svoger, Svogergylp and Adenila Foged at EBF, 2008.] Although it is long time I’ve tasted this I remember some sweet coffee, vanilla, smoke heavy alcohol and more complex notes. Great wonder!

12 oz bottle (bottled Jan. 2006, Bach 1 – Alcohol 15.1% by Volume): gigantic frothy light chocolate head, that eventually bubbles into a thin, rocky film. Dark, blackish red body; opaque. Fairly wicked, hot-alcohol aroma mixed well with dark, juicy black cherries, rich chocolate, and a fairly strong hop bitterness. Tar, currants, burnt raisins and oak take a back seat, but show through as it warms. Overly sweet, mushy cherries and plums…the sugar is left all over the lips, tongue and sides of the mouth. Palate is a creamy, but surprisingly thin and the rich chocolate and hop bitterness is quickly lost in the sweetness. Pretty tasty, but the residual and lasting sweetness is a bit much…nice job hiding the alcohol though…

Bottle. Batch 2. Pours syrupy oil black with a minimal brown head. Aroma is quite complex; malt, semisweet chocolate, oak, coffee. Rich and creamy on the palate and quite sweet. Not as sweet and as raisny as the Samaels, though. The initial sweetness gives way to an array of complex malt and chocolate notes. The true stout flavor doesn’t come through until close to the finish. The finish is very espresso-like and very long. I was tasting malt for a while. Much like the other "fallen angel" beers this is complex and unique, albeit not for all tastes.

Re-rate. 2007 vintage. Lots of bitter espresso and tar on the nose and tongue. This batch seems a tad more astringent and bitter than the 2006. Definitely needs some more time. A lot more time...

An OG of 1.142? Call Captain Kirk. The Enterprise has to be hauled out of mothballs to go where no man has gone before.Monsterous, high octane aroma,malt nail polish sherry, brownie ,satanically black,with a head that is immediately devoured by the alcohol. Big huge body,chewing and cloying, like a sweet port mixed with chocolate brownie mix and sweet malt wort,just to much malt and sweetness to notice much hop. One bottle could last you an hour. We have gone to the malt limit on this one. A stunning experience,to much to sort through in one bottle. It absolutely gets better as it warms or is that just the 15% kicking in.Did the Demon on the bottle talk to anyone else ?

where do I begin.Pours black as night with lots of coffee nose.The 1st sip the coffee hits you, then the 2nd sip you get the sweetness.Oily slick feeling in th e mouth.quite delicious.dark fruits, hidden alcohol and coffe, you cant go wrong.The alcohol does creep up on you tho.Very good.

Pours an oily black color with a decent but not huge. Excellent lacing. Strong mocha, tawny, and alcohol aroma. The sweetness of this beer smacks you in the mouth immediately but eventually gives way too dark chocolate and dark roast coffee. The warming sensation of the alcohol is similar to a port wine without giving you the unpleasant pure burn that other weaker beers are sometimes guilty of. I almost regret drinking this beer just so I could try it again for the first time. Excellent.